Sharif worried about PM’s House leaks

Govt to punish responsible person even if it is a mistake

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is worried about the PM’s House leaks after a video, showing him speaking to Army Chief Raheel Sharif in a meeting, went viral.

There was nothing wrong in the clip only if it did not carry some audio contents. This was for the first time that the two leaders could be heard speaking during the one-on-one meeting behind the closed doors at the PM House.

The timing was even worse as the PM went through the Panama leaks test amid the opposition’s demands for accountability. The high-level meetings are covered only by the state media camera and the audio is always muted. It is not known how the audio was recorded and then leaked.

Reports said the army chief had asked PM Sharif to complete the investigations into the Panama leaks at the earliest. This was denied by the government.

Other reports claimed the video was intentionally leaked to ward off the claims that the army chief was pressing the PM for serious probe into the Panama Papers. This too was rejected by the government.

The leaked brief footage of the Tuesday meeting showed the two leaders discussing the premier’s recent visit to London for medical check-up. Nawaz Sharif tells the army chief that a “date has been given” for medical check-up, with the latter responding that the Prime Minister should visit London before that date.

Officials at the PM House told The Nation that Sharif was quite worried about the clip and had ordered investigations. “The PM told his close aides he cannot afford another issue amid the Panama scandal and asked them to find the person responsible for the leak,” a senior official said. “If it turned out to be some technical mistake, even then the person responsible will be punished for the recklessness,” he claimed.

After the reports surfaced that Panama leaks were discussed between the PM and the army chief, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said it was not possible to know what was discussed in the one-on-one meeting.

“I don’t know who was getting the details from the one-on-one meeting. There was nobody else. No third person,” he said.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister Musadik Malik confirmed the government was investigating the PM’s House leak to find out what went wrong. “The responsibility will be fixed. An investigation is being carried out,” he added.

Recently, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said there was no major gulf in relations between the civilian government and the military on issues of corruption and the Punjab operation.

The statement – a little before the latest meeting - was significant as it seemed to imply that there could indeed be points of difference between the civilian and the military leadership of the country.